My very first store - please take a look

[jazzboe]

This is my first store, pretty basic I know but something to build on. Please let me know what you think I should do to improve and also the aspects of the store you like (so I make sure to keep them!!). If you live in Australia, please feel free to make a purchase. :P

[burt]

Did you forget something ;)

[jazzboe]

Did you forget something ;)

 

I hope not!!! I'm a complete newbie to this.... :blink:

[blafrog]

you forgot to leave you site URL. :lol:

[jazzboe]

you forgot to leave you site URL. :lol:

Yeh - that's a doozie!! :lol:

 

https://www.cyclecentral.com.au/catalog/

[Guest]

It doesn't seem to work.

[digilee]

Let's start this thread again shall we?

 

:)

[Obewanz]

Not sure why I'm hitting a secure page right off the bat, unless your config.php is incorrect.

Take a look and make sure you have [http://] in the [HTTP_SERVER] spot instead of [https://]

[Obewanz]

PS: Your SolarFrenzy Ajax login doesn't let you know it can't work without cookies! Might want to check on that. :(

[Ariffshah]

Nice and simple layout. :thumbsup:.

 

Who do the graphic for your website. May want to recommend to others?.

[jazzboe]

Nice and simple layout. :thumbsup:.

 

Who do the graphic for your website. May want to recommend to others?.

 

Thanks - I took the photo's myself and a friend and I did a little photoshop session one afternoon. I'm very happy with them - we have a series of photo's that we'll rotate through.

 

All other graphics I have worked on myself - buttons however I can take no credit for - I found them in a contrib some time ago and modified them where necessary to fit in with my colour scheme.

[jazzboe]

Not sure why I'm hitting a secure page right off the bat, unless your config.php is incorrect.

Take a look and make sure you have [http://] in the [HTTP_SERVER] spot instead of [https://]

 

Thankyou very much for this input - I will check it out immediately.

 

..Just checked it out - http and https are where they should be..

[jazzboe]

It doesn't seem to work.

 

Hi thereTanyaBDK - can you not access the site at all? I have had access all day - did you get an error message that might help me identify problems that I might have?

[jazzboe]

Let's start this thread again shall we?

 

:)

 

Yes, that makes sense - let's start again

 

Here is the new attempt:

 

http://www.oscommerce.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=293991

 

Thanks,

-J

[Guest]

OK, I can see it now - I was just getting the standard "this page cannot be displayed blah blah"

 

First off - I don't like the way the infoboxes kind of creep towards the centre of the page whe you first open it - I agree that it should be centred, but it should just be in the centre from the beginning.

 

It takes quite a long time for the page to load.

 

Why do you have a redirection page on your root home page? You can put it in the .htaccess so it just goes directly to the shop.

 

Similarly, I've always hated the Top >> Catalog thing if there is no other content in the root directory. Get rid of the 'top' and call it something like shop or store rather than catalog.

 

Every time I click anywhere, I'm faced with the security warning "this page contains secure and nonsecure items" which very quickly gets old.

 

You mention on your conditions page "Any incorrect, missing or damaged items received must be reported to CYCLE CENTRAL within 24 hours of you receiving the delivery. This can only be done by E-mail or Fax. "

 

But you don't have an email address or a fax number anywhere on your site that I've found so far.

 

Nw I've looked about a bit - the security warning has stopped appearing. But it definitely needs looking at.

 

The events tab goes to an IP address which doesn't load anything.

 

OK, now the good stuff.

I like the logo and the colour scheme.

I would like the infoboxes if they didn't take so long to load the images.

[jazzboe]

Thanks very much for that feedback - more for me to think about!!

 

You mention on your conditions page "Any incorrect, missing or damaged items received must be reported to CYCLE CENTRAL within 24 hours of you receiving the delivery. This can only be done by E-mail or Fax. "

I have contact details in the Contact Us and the Requests option, but I take your point - it would be much better if I had a link within the info pages to those contacts - will definitely put that in.

 

The events tab goes to an IP address which doesn't load anything.

Weird - it works for me and others who looked at it tonight - is it just blank? Or is there a page not found error?

 

Why do you have a redirection page on your root home page? You can put it in the .htaccess so it just goes directly to the shop.

I was simply told by my hosting service that I would need to do that - if there is a better way such as a .htaccess I would love to know about it - do you have a sample line that does that?

 

First off - I don't like the way the infoboxes kind of creep towards the centre of the page whe you first open it - I agree that it should be centred, but it should just be in the centre from the beginning.

 

It takes quite a long time for the page to load.

I agree - it does take a long time load load, but only sometimes. And I don't think it is a function of local cache on my PC either. I can clear all cache and reopen the site and it's fast - other times it is slow. I suspect it is a function of the thumbnailer that I use - images are cached server side after processing (which should in theory save time). My images should be small enough I think and I'm not aware of any redundant code lying around...it has me a bit stumped and annoyed.

 

Every time I click anywhere, I'm faced with the security warning "this page contains secure and nonsecure items" which very quickly gets old.

Again, I agree - I have a support ticket with the host about this also

 

Similarly, I've always hated the Top >> Catalog thing if there is no other content in the root directory. Get rid of the 'top' and call it something like shop or store rather than catalog.

I can understand that - I was actually thinking of getting rid of it all together. I think you can get around the site quickly enough without the breadcrumb and I think it is relatively obvious where your are not to get lost..

[Guest]

I have contact details in the Contact Us and the Requests option, but I take your point - it would be much better if I had a link within the info pages to those contacts - will definitely put that in.

 

All I could see on the contact us page was the form - no fax or tel or anything else.

 

 

Weird - it works for me and others who looked at it tonight - is it just blank? Or is there a page not found error?

 

Just getting an empty page. I waited for 4 minutes and it still didn't load anything.

 

I was simply told by my hosting service that I would need to do that - if there is a better way such as a .htaccess I would love to know about it - do you have a sample line that does that?

 

In the .htaccess file in your root directory, put this - DirectoryIndex catalog/index.php

 

You'll need to delete the files in your root directory for it to work though I think.

[chefgene]

In the .htaccess file in your root directory, put this - DirectoryIndex catalog/index.php

 

You'll need to delete the files in your root directory for it to work though I think.

 

Put this line in your .htaccess (root directory)...no need to delete anything

Redirect 301 /index.html https://www.cyclecentral.com.au/catalog/

 

(no underline, the BB editor won't let me remove the link line :) )

[Obewanz]

Put this line in your .htaccess (root directory)...no need to delete anything

Redirect 301 /index.html https://www.cyclecentral.com.au/catalog/

 

(no underline, the BB editor won't let me remove the link line :) )

Shouldn't that redirect be

Redirect 301 /index.html http://www.cyclecentral.com.au/catalog/

?

[jazzboe]

Great - thanks for that!! I will look at it now.

[Obewanz]

Just FYI, this is where/why a splash page can be extremely valuable when done correctly - people would still be able to contact you and not get blank pages, etc. Plus if someone just really knew they wanted products from your site (maybe from a non-virtual referral - like a business card or word of mouth), they would at least be able to get a visual image and bookmark the page.

 

^

|------- Thought for the day ;)

[jazzboe]

I had thought about the Splash page concept - I think that in the order of priorities, that might be a little down the track but definitely will consider that - It might provide a more search engine friendly page too???

 

I must thank you guys for your input on the .htaccess file. I added the suggested code and it seems to redirect nice and quickly.

[Guest]

Hi James,

 

I signed up for an account. When sites don't want people from other countries - please hard code it rather than using a one country dropdown box.

Then your page had an error, (I say page error because I was not presented with a state dropdown list before being told I made a mistake) it refreshed to tell me to pick a state (and forgot my password of course)(avoidable by hard coding)

 

Why do you need my gender and date of birth?

 

Personally I hate seeing osCsid=j83267vkojbk07bnrrkgbagjq2 in my address bar.

 

The News-Maps-Tips section has a community friendly feeling to it.

 

Personally I dislike fixed width sites. Your print is ever so tiny. Let's adjust it (shift ++), ahh I can read it now. Oh boy, now the center has slimmed up abit. Try looking at your site through a variety of browsers and screen resolutions. I also see that changing from a fixed width site would conflict with the Comodo Logo

 

Are you using the Graphical Borders 1702 contribution?

 

Your site has a nice airy look. Some of the icons though remind me of a template I've seen.

[jazzboe]

I signed up for an account. When sites don't want people from other countries - please hard code it rather than using a one country dropdown box.

Then your page had an error, (I say page error because I was not presented with a state dropdown list before being told I made a mistake) it refreshed to tell me to pick a state (and forgot my password of course)(avoidable by hard coding)

 

Yep - I can see that - thanks for the feedback - I'll fix that up...

 

Why do you need my gender and date of birth?

 

We intend on sending out birthday gift vouchers in the future......

 

Personally I hate seeing osCsid=j83267vkojbk07bnrrkgbagjq2 in my address bar.

 

I agree that it is a bit ugly..is the solution simple? I am completely new to this...I did try an SEO mod but it screwed up things from the get go...

 

The News-Maps-Tips section has a community friendly feeling to it.

 

Thanks - we are trying to provide more than just a store - we have had very positive feedback from Australian cycling organisations also...

 

Personally I dislike fixed width sites. Your print is ever so tiny. Let's adjust it (shift ++), ahh I can read it now. Oh boy, now the center has slimmed up abit. Try looking at your site through a variety of browsers and screen resolutions. I also see that changing from a fixed width site would conflict with the Comodo Logo

 

There are pro's and con's I guess - some research has shown that fixed sites are better received than others (at least that's what they say in some uni courses)...on the other hand many others like yourself don't like them - I'm still undecided..

 

Are you using the Graphical Borders 1702 contribution?

 

I think that is the contrib that I used

 

Your site has a nice airy look. Some of the icons though remind me of a template I've seen.

 

I found some icons and modified them, and made many others to look the same

 

Thanks for your feedback!!! Much appreciated.

 

J

[Guest]

QUOTE

Why do you need my gender and date of birth?

 

 

We intend on sending out birthday gift vouchers in the future......

I made these optional on my client's site (adds another selection [none] for "Salutation" and the removal of validation code).

 

QUOTE

Personally I hate seeing osCsid=j83267vkojbk07bnrrkgbagjq2 in my address bar.

 

 

I agree that it is a bit ugly..is the solution simple? I am completely new to this...I did try an SEO mod but it screwed up things from the get go...

I think that they go away when cookies are required.

 

I installed Ultimate SEO. I find that it works really well, even on a real store with 400+ categories and 11369 enabled products; on a comic book store with 1 sale every two years; and on a joke site I run. I remember that the htaccess code didn't have the category depth (and worse unable to copy with 3 digit numbers) so I made and took a crash course in htaccess writing. Turns out that all I needed to do was add another "or" type clause || [xxx] in his statements (for three digits) and insert another statement line for the additional depth level. I guess I am just trying to encourage you to keep trying when you have problems installing a contribution. :)